When you get glasses, they can make them to focus at various distances. If you explain to them what distance your monitors are, they may be able to produce glasses that work better for you. My reading glasses work fine for using my desktop computer but they wouldn't be so good if the monitor was another two feet away from me.

I think that's part of the problem. For reading and knitting - and using this laptop - the distance is perfect and just what I asked for. I think the mistake I made was in not realising that the monitors are that much further away (50-60cm). I've been wearing them to various places where I work and the monitor problem is the same with pretty much all of them where the monitors are about 50cm from the front of the desk. Some of them I can pull the monitor closer but not all of them.

I definitely need the close-up stuff as I have trouble seeing things that are closer than about 40cm away. What I should have asked for was bifocals as I still need my normal glasses for the stuff that's over 40cm away. You live and learn.